Nature
Because of the abundance of sierras in the province of Malaga there are many natural spaces or hardly touched spots which offer interesting sceneries and ecology, and are protected by the administration, environmentally and urbanistically. This protection adapts the social and economic use of these spaces to the conservation of the natural values they hold, therefore adapting their use to the development of the last few years of the international, state and autonomous classes.
The areas which are protected for their scenic and environmental interest in the province of Malaga, cover almost half of the territory. There are over 57.000 hectares, over 15% of the protected area, which are included in the inventory of natural spaces, managed by the Agencia de Medio Ambiente (Environmental Agency).
This area is distributed in the following way:
The Natural Reserves, includes the reserved and protected area which consists of 2.851 hectares, distributed between the Archidona, Campillos, Fuente de Piedra and Ratos lagoons in the municipality of Alameda.
The Natural Spots occupy an area of 5.197,5 hectares which are distributed between the Maro cliffs and the Gordo hills (these spaces are shared with the province of Granada and extend in the province of Malaga over the municipality of Nerja), the mouth of the Guadalhorce in the municipality of Malaga, the Gaitanes cliffs in the municipality of Ardales, Antequera, Abdalajis valley and Alora, the Crestellina sierra in the municipality of Casares, and the Torcal in Antequera.
The Natural Parks cover an area of about 49,026 hectares which are spread over the Malaga Mountains, and the Sierra de las Nieves in the municipality of Istan, Monda, Parauta, Ronda, Tolox and Yunquera, the Grazalema sierra which is shared with the province of Cadiz and extends, in Malaga, over the municipalities of Ronda, Montejaque, Benaojan, Jimera de Libar and Cortes de la Frontera, and the Cork-oaks which extend over the municipality of Cortes de la Frontera.
Among these three protected sections are the exceptionally interesting spots of the Sierra de las Nieves, the Fuente de Piedra lagoon, and the Torcal de Antequera. The Sierra de las Nieves has the most important Spanish fir forest in the world. This species is exclusive to the south of the peninsular and the north of Morocco and covers an area of about 3.000 hectares. The Fuente de Piedra lagoon together with the Camargue lagoon in the south of France, has one of the main flamingo colonies in the world. The flamingos use this area to reproduce and then they emigrate to other humid areas of the Mediterranean. The Torcal de Antequera has the most curious forms caused by the water’s erosion, and is among the most outstanding natural spaces of its kind in the world and is possibly the best conserved karstic massif.
Malaga also has natural spaces which are included in the special protection plan of the physical medium which is managed by the urban provincial commission. This plan covers an extension of 371.368 hectares of which 67% correspond to the special protection, and the rest to the preventive protection.
The following areas are included in the catalogue of protected spaces and goods of the special protection plan of the physical medium: 5 exceptional spots, 2 humid areas, 1 coastal complex, 3 interesting scientific sites, 8 singular spots, 34 environmentally interesting highland complexes, 6 recreationally interesting forest spaces, 1 environmentally interesting coastal complex, 11 singular agricultural landscapes, and 3 transformed humid areas.
The spaces included in the preventive protection are similar to the above only they are not catalogued because of the special circumstances they present, be it pressure from human activity as in the Guadalhorce irrigation, or for their complexity as in the Malaga mountains and the Axarquia.
The largest concentration of especially interesting natural spaces are in the Ronda region where more than 70% of the territory is included in some sort of legal protection. The high ecological and scenic interest of this region has been enhanced with the proposal of including the Sierra de las Nieves in the Biosphere Network Reserve of the UNESCO. The international committee of the MAB program (Man and Biosphere) has approved the proposal and now the Sierra de las Nieves forms part of the International Network of Protected Spaces to which the Grazalema sierra also belongs. The reserve of the Sierra de las Nieves biosphere and surroundings includes an ample territory which extends over 15 spaces which are included in the Special Protection Plan of the Physical Medium and five other municipalities: Alozaina, El Burgo, Casarabonela, Guaro and Ojen, with an area of 93.930 hectares, almost 13% of the provincial extent.
